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boon
Posts: 1
| Hey y'all! My mare and I have been having some problems on the pole pattern. She's a 7 year old Smart Little Lena bred mare who was originally trained for cutting. At almost 16hh, she has an extremely large stride, which I imagine makes poles a bit harder too! She's been coming along great with barrels, but pole improvement is at a bit of a standstill. She certainly knows the pattern, and she has it down great at a trot. Problem is, things go a bit sideways once I ask for more. She's incredibly quick on her feet, so she often turns things too tight. When I ask her for a slow lope through the pattern, she either cuts them much too close and hits them, or swings out much too wide and the pattern gets messy, quick. I can't seem to find somewhere in between, and was wondering if anyone had any exercises that may help. I do set my poles the standard length apart.
Any help is appreciated! :) |
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 Certified Snake Wrangler
Posts: 1672
  
Location: North MS | Bless you! Time- not the greatest answer. I have found that I had good times by running down and out fast with the weaving at about 1/2 to 3/4 for a LONG time. We are now able to speed up in between the poles, but several years of practice and only "playing" at poles I call it have made the difference. 2 Years in- we won 10th at state. Last year after only practicing a few times a year- we were 2nd in 1D with a 22.1. So time is my opinion.
On the other hand I have a finished mare that is set in her ways- one day we will be consistent. Until then, we will continue to play at it a while longer. |
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| Practice not letting your horse move over until the middle of the poles. she is anticipating. Really get her moving her body off your legs. |
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The Advice Guru
Posts: 6419
| Are you using both hands when weaving, are you using your leg? How did you train her? Are you reversing arcing her through the poles, or did you teach her with a direct rein? |
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Member
Posts: 19
| When I work poles with my horses I like to really get them respecting my leg. I side pass and two track through them when i'm doing slow work and really exaggerate getting them over. I find this helps with keeping them from getting a really big "s" shape and swinging out when your weaving. Then when you make a run you can really get them over from the pole if you need to with out having to pick up and grab at their face too much
Just my personal opinion :) |
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  Twin Sister to Queen Boobie
Posts: 13315
Location: East Tennessee but who knows?! | flyordash - 2014-03-02 3:06 PM When I work poles with my horses I like to really get them respecting my leg. I side pass and two track through them when i'm doing slow work and really exaggerate getting them over. I find this helps with keeping them from getting a really big "s" shape and swinging out when your weaving. Then when you make a run you can really get them over from the pole if you need to with out having to pick up and grab at their face too much Just my personal opinion :)
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Fire Ant Peddler
Posts: 2881
| make sure that you have complete control of the shoulders and hind end. This way you have control as you work through the poles. The horse needs to be working off the inside rein and off your leg before you start working very fast on the poles. |
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 Veteran
Posts: 193
Location: USA | I had problems with my second and third pole going down. My mare would overly anticipate it and would slam into it. Other times my foot would hit it, lol. In practice I have to really get a hold of her shoulders and over exaggerate my poles because she is a push style and very ratey. But in our runs she's a straight as an arrow we make a consistent 22-23 second run depending on the pen but when I start adding to much speed and try to rush her training in poles is when we mess up. You might just have to give your horse a little more time doing pole work and other drills to help her out. My TB took about 8 months do get a nice consistent canter through the poles and she's 16.3hh but she finally got it. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1131
| What someone else said, Time.
I have been riding my mare on poles for about 3/4 years now and only now are we being slightly competitive. She is a 16 hand, wide as she is tall type, so poles was never the ideal discipline for her anyway, but she will run 25s not being pushed at all.
She gets really chargy like this too and what we do to fix it, is if they dodge in, push them away from it by pushing their shoulders out several steps, and just keep doing it until she stops dodging in. Be consistant with it. |
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